Projects

Assessment of the Contributions of QualityNY to Program Improvements
Project funded by United Way of New York City

There is a strong and compelling body of evidence linking the early experiences of young children in high quality early care and education settings with language, social-emotional, and cognitive development, with school readiness, and with early success in school. Unfortunately, most early care and education settings in the United States are of poor quality. Quality improvement can be a daunting task, and experience has found that teacher training, credentials and professional development are not sufficient to ensure sustainable comprehensive program quality. An approach focused at the program level is needed.

Quality New York (QNY) is a comprehensive initiative to support development and learning of all New York City's young children by assisting early care and education programs to improve teaching and administrative practices. QNY uses a comprehensive program improvement model that includes two types of support for participating programs - group support activities and individualized support - both focused on the program administrators or directors.

This evaluation, supported by the United Way of New York City, sought to measure how the quality of participating early care and education programs improve during their participation in QNY, identify how components of QNY contribute to improvement, and, based on these findings, consider what components of QNY might be replicated and system-wide policies and practices adopted.

To carry out this study, CAPD recruited 11 early care and education programs that had participated in QNY for at least 18 months and that had been assessed as having substantial weaknesses in their learning environments and program administration. The evaluation included repeat assessments using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale and the Program Administration Scale as well as measures of participation in QNY activities. In addition, both program administrators and QNY staff for each of the programs were interviewed.

QNY's two types of support for early care and education programs - group support provided in professional development workshops and program administrator network meetings, and individualized support provided by consultation with an experienced early childhood education professional and on-site training - were both found to be effective in contributing to quality improvement. Each type of support contributed to a different area of quality.

Associated Report

"Quality New York: Assessment Of Its Contributions To Program Improvement In Early Care And Education Programs In New York City," S. A. Stephens, August 2009